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BEA 2009 Hosted Royalty Software

May 29, 2009 By

Today at Book Expo America we visited three exhibiting vendors that offer hosted (software as a service) royalty software solutions.

Each vendor offers powerful software solutions that can be accessed via any personal computer - a PC or MAC – that has internet access. These SAS; software as a service, offerings eliminate the need for an IT staff to manage the software, train your staff and backup the data.

In summary;

  1. We found that The Media Services Group offering to be powerful and extremely easy to use. 
  2. The Klopotek solution offers a wide range of integrated expansion options – editorial management, production management, title information, etc.
  3. Publishing Technology’s rights and royalties solution features end-user customization options and powerful work process controls.
  4. Each solution is comparably priced and highly scalable.
  5. Each solution offers integrated rights management functionality.
  6. Each solution on a highly scalable MS SQL or Oracle database engine.

If you are looking for a hosted royalty software we recommend that you 1) conduct a business process review to document your current and future requirements, 2) compare the functionality of each solution against your requirements and 3) select the one that best meets your requirements (after checking references).

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Easy Royalties v3.4.8

May 24, 2009 By

Easy Royalties update 3.4.8 is available for free to all version 3 users.

New functionality in this version includes;

  1. Royalty Percentage Shares
  2. Payment History Tab
  3. Royalty Contract Imports
  4. Royalty rates based on price

Royalty Percentage Shares. You can create a contract where authors share the royalties based on a percentage split. For example; 75%/25% or 40%/30%/15%/15%.

Payment History Tab. The author and contract records have a tab that shows all payments issued to the author or on behalf of the royalty contract. 

Royalty Contract Imports. Users can have the system automatically create royalty contracts from an Excel import file. If you have hundreds or thousands of contracts this will save you lots of time.

Royalty rate based on price. A royalty rule that allows you to base the royalty percentage on the price of an product was added. For example, 10% if the product is priced  $10 or less and 15% if the product is priced over $10.

If you downloaded the trial version of Easy Royalties prior to Sunday May 23rd you can download another version to see these improvements.

Existing users of Easy Royalties have been sent an email with a link to the software update website address.

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Book Expo America 2009

May 16, 2009 By

Meet the Easy Royalties staff at Book Expo America 2009.

Staff from Easy Royalties and its developer; JDC Software, will be walking the floor at New York City’s Book Expo America 2009; May 29 through May 31st.

To schedule a meeting during the show email sales@easyroyaltiesusa.com

Filed Under: Software News

Elan Rights and Royalties

May 16, 2009 By

Elan Rights and Royalties is one of  four hosted royalty solutions that we recommend to publishers with revenue of $5M to $30M USD.

The other solutions are Klopotek, Publishing Technology and Royalty Tracker.

Why Elan?

First, Elan is a modern .NET 100% browser based application. You don’t have to install any applications on the user’s PC or MAC. Yes, this software can be accessed by both PC and MAC users. The backend database is MS SQL. The report engine is Crystal Reports.

Second, the software features an Inductive User Interface. This means that the software is extremely easy to use and that can it can be adapted to the requirements of its users. Compared to other software implementations its like night and day. The interface can be customized to the user, it utilizes Wizards to guide the user and it has integrated help.

Third, the Elan solution is hosted at mirrored sites at world class data centers. Two hosting sites are located in the United States and a third is located in London. All data is mirrored (copied) from one site to the others. If one goes down you will have seamless access from the other two hosting sites.

Four, Elan features automated report delivery to management and authors.

Fifth, Elan is offered by The Media Services Group, a company with a diversified client base of 400 book and magazine publishers.

The price?

According to an article in Book Business Magazine the price for this hosting solution is $900/month. That’s $10,800 a year or $54,000 over five years. The hosted solution includes technical support, software upgrades and data backups.

PS:  Are you wondering why we mention the competition? It’s because we want you to pick the best solution for your company. We like Easy Royalties alot. Its affordable and powerful.  We can help you implement it really fast; however, its not for everyone.

Look at all the solutions within your budget, check references and select the royalty software that best meets your requirements.

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Penguin Royalty Statement

May 6, 2009 By

Have you ever wondered what a large publisher royalty statement looks like?

The author of Twilight fall; Lynn Viehl, posted an analysis of her first royalty statement for this book along with the actual royalty statement on a blog entry at Genreality.net .

If you look at the Penguin royalty accounting statement you see that it provides the author with a detailed analysis of how her earnings are calculated.

It also provides the author with a historical summary. The historical summary shows prior period earnings, current peiod earnings and activity to date.

Furthermore, look in the subsidiary rights section. There the Penguin statements lists each subsidiary right sale seperately.

Royalty accounting is made easy with clear royalty statments such as the statements provided by Penguin.

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